3/10/09

One in 50 US Child Homeless-Texas Ranks Worst at Number 50

Texas ranks last overall according to a report released March 10 by the National Center on Family Homelessness "America’s Youngest Outcasts: State Report Card on Child Homelessness".

The report is the first comprehensive compilation of data which enables a state by state comparison. Families that find themselves without secure housing are reluctant to enter the prison like state funded emergency shelters out of fear of being broken apart.

Many families now forsake this option and live on the streets and these numbers are rising exponentially in the face of spiraling double digit unemployment.

Children are the innocent victims suffering lifelong effects from insecurity, unavailability of education and medical care, social interaction issues, malnutrition and violence.

In short, Texas(50), Louisiana(46), Mississippi(41) and South Carolina(39) four of the five states that the republican governors have threatened to refuse extended unemployment benefits offered by the federal government are also rated among the very worst in the report.

These four states have all the necessary ingredients to produce a societal failure of unimaginable proportions. Drug usage, violent crime and a out of control rise in the prison population is already in evidence in Texas, it being number one in the percentage of imprisoned per population.

With the release of the new report America’s Youngest Outcasts: State Report Card on Child Homelessness, the National Center on Family Homelessness challenges advocates, policymakers, funders, and service providers to end to this tragedy. Join this effort to ensure that all of our nation’s children have homes to call their own.